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Blink of an Eye
'' |image= |series= |production=40840-233 |producer(s)= |story= Michael Taylor |script= Joe Menosky |director=Gabrielle Beaumont |imdbref=tt0708856 |guests=Melik Malkasian as Shaman, Walter H. McCready as Tribal Alien, Obi Ndefo as Kelemane, Olaf Pooley as Cleric, Daniel Zacapa as Astronomer, Jon Cellini as Technician, Daniel Dae Kim as Gotana-Retz, Kat Sawyer-Young as Tureena and Scarlett Pomers as Naomi Wildman |previous_production=Tsunkatse |next_production=Virtuoso |episode=VGR S06E12 |airdate=19 January 2000 |previous_release=Fair Haven |next_release=Virtuoso |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2376) |previous_story=Tsunkatse |next_story=Virtuoso }} Summary As the U.S.S. Voyager approaches a planet with extremely high revolutions, the ship enters a gravometric gradient, pulling it into orbit. A tachyon core has created a space-time differential, meaning that a second on Voyager is a day on the planet. On the planet, much time has already passed since the initial sighting of the "star" which was believed to be a deity. When Seven of Nine receives a transmission from the planet, the message, now centuries old, tells the crew they have insinuated themselves into the planet's mythology. For centuries, this pre-warp society has endured ground shaking brought about by this "sky ship." Unwilling to throw their civilization's belief system into chaos by making first contact, Captain Janeway sends the Doctor on an undercover mission to gather clues that may help Voyager break orbit. His holomatrix will be unaffected by the differential. As Janeway prepares to beam him back, she loses his signal. Once they recover the Doctor, three years have passed on the planet. He alerts Janeway that Voyager has encouraged much invention through the centuries. The inhabitants are in a space race to make contact. Using the Doctor's data to realign thrusters, the crew attempts to break orbit, but stops when it increases seismic activity. A shuttle from the planet docks on Voyager, and the visitors find the crew in what appears to be a metabolic stasis. Because of the time differential, they are seeing less than a second on board the ship, causing them to think the crew is not moving. When Janeway resumes motion, the visitors have collapsed on the bridge. The surviving pilot explains that he has grown up in awe of the "sky ship," even praying to it as a child. Although any time he spends on Voyager means losing years of his life at home, he agrees to help them interpret the Doctor's data and find a way to break out of orbit. As Seven scans the planet's surface, she detects that they are now experimenting with warp technology. Soon, Voyager is under attack from antimatter torpedoes. Janeway sends the pilot back to his planet with Voyager's specifications, hoping that he can convince his people to find a way to help them break orbit. After several more attacks, but more than a year since the pilot returned to his planet, two ships materialize next to Voyager and use a tractor beam to pull it out of orbit. Using a temporal compensator his planet has devised, the pilot returns to Voyager one more time to say goodbye before the "sky ship" is gone forever. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Richie Vest The Doctor's son seems to be a biological one. How can a hologram have a biological child. I assume not an adopted one of course. ' Perhaps the mobile emmiter can replicate sperm based on the DNA profile of Professor Zimmerman.' # Hines on Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - 6:59 pm: Isn't it odd that we can understand their language, even see a written document in English without a UT and not be able to understand the Breen with one. The Breen language could have been developed especially to make it impossible for non Breens! # Wouldn't it have been a good idea to shoot down the torpedoes that were hitting the ship? ' It may not have been possible to target them accurately enough!' # PaulG on Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - 9:11 pm: The Doc said he needed "companionship." I am guessing he means the intimate type. But I don't remember the Doc having any intimate relationship on Voyager in a long time. What has he been doing in the meantime to deal with these urges? Have I missed a major subplot of the Doc getting lucky? ;-) Perhaps he felt it was necessary, in order to blend in with the locals. # If 1 day alien = 1 second Voyager, then there is no way that Janeway and company could be watching the seasons change in astrometrics. They were there for 20 seconds tops. That's 20 days, not enough for the kind of dramatic seasonal changes shown on the viewsceen. (Anti-nit: The viewscreen could be showing snapshots from a longer period of time. But Janeway does seem to imply that they are watching it "real time".) Either the seasons change quickly on this planet, or the footage watched in Astrometrics was of the transition period between seasons. # When Voyager attempts to break free from orbit with the thrusters, the result is minimal damage by earthquakes on the surface. However, I estimate the thrusters were in use for at least 5 seconds. Five continuous days of earthquakes, no matter how minor, should cause a lot more than minimal damage. '''Jwb52z on Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - 9:31 pm: It was minimal because it was on a coastline. There's not usually much on a coastline. ''' Notes Category:Episodes Category:Voyager